A Desolate Lullaby
by eclatantly
Summary: Life, for better or for worse, can change in a moment. A one-shot for VinCat.


We never understand the beauty in our hands,

until we're out of time.

**Goodbye**_, Michael Logen_

* * *

_What had happened, _he asked himself.

Every inch of his body burned. Every inch was on fire, vexatious.

_How?_

* * *

_What happened? Why don't I remember? _Questions started lingering on his poor broken mind.

* * *

Smoke was everywhere. Fog was clouding every thought. Breathing in, it filled his lungs; tarnished. He stood, because he had to stand. Standing held a feeling of sanity. He knew he was running in a blind haze from the pain he was in, but he had to stand.

His mind cleared just slightly and he heard yelling. Panicked screams of terror filled his senses. The smoke, the yelling, the cries, the fog—none of it made any sense.

"Catherine."

She made sense. She was his only truth.

* * *

His vision was blurry and unclear. Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands, he surveyed the room. He was beginning to get his sight back. _Nothing makes sense._ He had to find something to make sense… her.

_Where is she?_

* * *

There she was. Catherine Chandler was lazily splayed on the floor, unconscious. Her deep hair slickly stuck to the side of her face. _Something isn't right._

* * *

He limped towards her. She was the only thing that was holding him in place.

_"Catherine,"_ he whispered down at her. His throat stung, pained.

He waited. Nothing.

Clearing his throat, he rasped, "Catherine, get up." Nothing.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly lowered himself beside her. "Catherine, wake up!"

Still nothing. He bent down just slightly, and allowed his hand to find a pulse. Her heartbeat was slowing, he knew.

_"Catherine, please. "_

* * *

The thought of marrying her frequented his dreams night after restless night. He'd been waiting to ask her for quite some time now. Even though he loved her with ever fiber of his being he still didn't think it'd be fair to her, to be settled down with someone like him… a monster. Still though, he realized that it didn't matter to her because she never thought of him that way. She saw only the best in him, a hero.

He had planned to ask her tonight. _Why the fuck didn't I do it sooner,_ he berated himself.

His eyes stung. He was so completely in love with her that he couldn't see straight.

* * *

"I love you… " She barely whispered.

Her weak voice shook him from his thoughts. Even her voice was was different. _No. God, take me instead... no._

"Baby, baby - I'm here. I love you and I'm here."

Vincent hugged her to his body as tightly as he could, as if he could somehow hold her tightly enough that she would stay.

* * *

Time slowly passed. One tick at a time. One breath at a time.

"It's too late. It's too late now," he muttered as he violently shook his head from side to side.

* * *

He cradled her limp body in his arms, he knew he was in shock because he still couldn't process anything but the emptiness. He could feel it, and it felt like a tidal wave pulling him under and cutting off his air, suffocating him, consuming him. She was growing colder against his warm body, she was there and he couldn't save her like she had saved him.

A few police officers ran by, frantically yelling. For once he didn't give a damn who saw them.

* * *

He tried resuscitation for over an hour, switching from rescue breathing to chest compressions every fifteen minutes. She wouldn't come back to him.

Why couldn't she come back?

There was nothing to live for without her. She was everything, she was his life.

* * *

His body convulsed as he sat her head gently on the ground. The heavy sobs overtook him as he watched her. Lifeless. With his finger he softly moved a stray hair from her face, her beautiful face. Her mouth drew together without expression, her mouth that only hours ago had told him that loved him and that she would run away with him, for him.

"Why," spilled from his mouth, piercing into the void that was chaos.

* * *

Every moment that they had shared flashed through his mind; every touch, every kiss, every word, every glance, and every night that he had held her after they had made love.

_This can't be it, we'd only just started out. We…_

* * *

He knew he was dying now, he felt it. Life was seeping from his veins and he was slipping from this world. Letting out a shaky breath, a few stray tears slipped from his bloodshot eyes.

_It doesn't matter, take me. If there is a God and you are listening then take me to where she is, I know that I don't belong in Heaven with her, but please... take me to her._

He lay down beside her and managed to mutter a few words. "I love you, Catherine. Here and beyond."

The smoke, the yelling, the cries, and the fog—it was all slowly fading now as he reached for her hand. His last breath escaped his chest and darkness overtook him.

* * *

Cemetery trees are whispering to me,

As if they hear you say...

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

**Goodbye**_, Michael Logen_

* * *

Fin.


End file.
